A new version of the Mi-28UB “Night Hunter” - a modern attack helicopter - will be transported to Russia’s air base in Syria in the coming weeks. The war machine’s manufacturers are keen to test its modified armor and missiles on the front line. A military industrial source told RBTH this: “Russian Helicopters [corporation] strengthened the helicopter’s front armor and enhanced its ‘brains.’ ” So in the very near future, an advanced version of the “battle bird” will be carrying out search and destroy missions against ISIS in the Middle East. One of the chopper’s new features gives full control...

HONOLULU (AP) — U.S. Coast Guard and military crews are searching the ocean off Hawaii for five people aboard an Army helicopter that went down during a training exercise, authorities said Wednesday. Officials at Wheeler Army Airfield near Honolulu reported losing communications around 10 p.m. Tuesday with the crew of a UH-60 Black Hawk, the Coast Guard said in a news release. Responding teams spotted a debris field about 2 miles (3 kilometers) west of Kaena Point, Oahu.

VH-92A Presidential Helicopter Achieves First Flight Aug 3, 2017 On July 28, the VH-92A configured test aircraft completed its first flight in support of the U.S. Marine Corps’ VH-92A Presidential Helicopter Replacement Program. STRATFORD, Conn., Aug. 3, 2017 – Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) today announced the first flight of a VH-92A configured test aircraft in support of the U.S. Marine Corps’ VH-92A Presidential Helicopter Replacement Program. The July 28 flight signals the start of the 250 hour flight test program, which will take place at Lockheed Martin facilities in Owego, New York. The aircraft achieved its first flight, and later...

Former Anheuser-Busch CEO arrested for trying to fly helicopter while allegedly intoxicated Jul 11, 2017, 3:33pm CDT Updated Jul 11, 2017, 4:13pm CDT Former Anheuser-Busch CEO August Adolphus Busch IV was arrested in Swansea Monday night after police say he tried to fly a helicopter while allegedly intoxicated. According to a statement from the Swansea Police Department, officers at 12:48 p.m. were dispatched to a report of a helicopter landing, for an unknown reason, at 1 Bronze Point, Swansea. Upon their arrival the helicopter was already on the ground in a parking lot. Assessment of the area and safety of...

Police kill gunman who tried to hijack helicopter at Hillsboro Airport Updated on July 3, 2017 By Everton Bailey Jr. and Olivia Dimmer As Christopher Neal watched planes fly in and out of the Hillsboro Airport with his wife and young son, a stranger in a gray hoodie caught their eye. With his hood up and hands in his pockets, the man walked from across Northwest Cornell Road toward a barbed-wire fence leading to airport property, Neal said. The man briefly looked at the family, then back toward the fence. It was the beginning of a bizarre attempt to hijack...

A helicopter has apparently tried to bomb Venezuela's Supreme Court in what President Nicolas Maduro called a "terrorist attack". The government says a police office flew the helicopter over the capital, Caracas, and dropped grenades. Footage on social media shows a helicopter circling over the city before a loud bang is heard. The officer believed to have seized the aircraft has issued a video statement condemning the government...... President Maduro said grenades had been dropped in the attack and he promised that security forces would capture those behind it. "I have activated the entire armed forces to defend the peace,"...

On Monday, Raytheon, a high energy laser system developer for the US army, said that it had bolted a laser to a U.S. Army Apache AH-64 helicopter and zapped an unmanned target at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The weapons test marked the first time a “fully integrated laser system” had successfully located and shot a target from a rotary-wing aircraft “over a wide variety of flight regimes, altitudes and air speeds,” the company said in a statement. Raytheon didn’t specify what the target was but said the helicopter’s laser “directed energy” on it from nearly a...

All 13 Turkish soldiers, including high-ranking generals, on board a Cougar military helicopter were killed when it crashed after getting caught in a high-voltage power line in the Senoba district of Turkey’s southeastern Sirnak province, the army said on Wednesday.In a statement, the army said the AS 532 Cougar had crashed shortly after taking off around 1855 GMT on Wednesday. It said emergency search and rescue teams were dispatched to the area and evaluations were underway at the crash site.Broadcaster CNN Turk said Defence Minister Fikri Isik would travel to Sirnak, while presidential sources said President Tayyip Erdogan had...

The Ka-52K ship-based helicopters have successfully completed the first stage of sea trials, according to the press service of the Russian Helicopters holding company (part of the Rostec State Corporation). "Ka-52K helicopters have completed the first stage of sea trials. Currently, the vehicles are at Kamov’s facilities, where specialists are completing the status evaluation of the helicopters and their separate units after mission accomplishment in difficult climatic conditions," the report states. It is noted that the tests that took place from late 2016 to early 2017 involved two helicopters. According to Vladislav Saveliev, Deputy CEO of the holding company, it...

The US Army has executed its grand rotary-wing aviation restructuring plan that saw the ousting of hundreds of Bell JetRanger derivatives from service—653 airframes in total. These included the Army's entire fleet of 187 TH-67 Creek primary trainers and the roughly 340 OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed reconnaissance/armed scout helicopters that performed so brilliantly in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, just months after the final Kiowa Warriors were officially retired, the US Army is whining about how badly they need...an armed scout helicopter. Under the same aviation plan, the OH-58D was partially "replaced" by far more complex and expensive AH-64E Apache Guardian...

Proposed Helicopter Would Replace MH-6/AH-6 Little Bird if Adopted. Lockheed Martin has released a new promotional video showing the S-97 Raider light tactical helicopter demonstrating many of its unique performance capabilities. The S-97 Raider, if adopted by the U.S. military, would replace the aging family of MH-6/AH-6 Little Bird helicopters widely used since the Vietnam conflict as special operations and observation/light attack helicopters. The MH-6/AH-6 family first flew in 1963 making it a legacy platform that has been continuously updated for expanded roles. Most airframes in U.S. service are now aging and, because a light tactical helicopter is subjected to...

WASHINGTON: Few purchases are more demonstrative of the changing nature of US-India ties than the deal that will result in the gradual makeover of the Indian military's helicopter fleet from a largely Russian line-up to a mostly American one. From choppy to chipper could well be the title of this saga, as India's defense minister Manohar Parrikar arrived in Washington DC for his sixth meeting in less than two years with his US counterpart on Monday, with a sortie thrown in to a chopper manufacturing facility in nearby Philadelphia, where Boeing makes the CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters. With 15 on...

A Russian military helicopter has been shot down by rebels in Syria killing all five people on board, it has been revealed. The aircraft, carrying three crew and two officers, crashed down in the Idlib province in north western Syria on its way home to a Russian airbase. Gruesome pictures have since emerged showing what is believed to be the body of a Russian pilot being dragged through the dirt and loaded on to a truck. It comes as mystery surrounded the discovery in the wreckage of an identification card showing a picture of a blonde woman. The image was...

A Russian Mi-8 helicopter has been shot down by ground fire in Syria following delivery of humanitarian supplies to Aleppo, the Defense Ministry said. Three crew and two officers from Russia's Reconciliation Center died, according to a Kremlin statement. The Russian military transport Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in Syria on Monday over an area controlled by Al-Nusra Front, Russia’s General Staff said. “The helicopter was hit from the ground in an area under control of the armed units of Al-Nusra Front terrorist group and the troops of the so-called ‘moderate opposition’ who joined them,” General Sergey Rudskoy, chief of...

Lt. Col. Charles S. Kettles, an Army helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, will be awarded the Medal of Honor in a ceremony later this month for an act of heroism almost 50 years ago. At the time he was given the Distinguished Service Cross, but a dedicated amateur historian finally talked the Department of Defense into reviewing the matter. Following an act of Congress and a Presidential signature (required for Medal of Honor awards), Kettles will receive his new medal in a July 18 ceremony at the White House.

ISTANBUL — They were used to stalk Russian helicopters in Afghanistan, and the United States has worked hard to keep them out of chaotic Syria. But now Kurdish guerrillas battling Turkey's security forces may now have shoulder-fired missiles — an acquisition analysts say will seriously challenge Turkish air power and potentially intensify fighting in the region. About four minutes into the video, the fighter, clad in camouflage fatigues, crouches on a verdant hillside with the weapons system on his shoulder. When the launcher locks on its target — a helicopter whirring noisily on the horizon — the fighter stands to...

AVX Aircraft of Benbrook, Texas has responded to the US Army’s request for information on the smallest of five planned Future Vertical Lift (FVL) capability sets with two 7.5t (16,700lb) winged coaxial compound helicopter configurations that the company’s chief executive describes as vertical takeoff fighter aircraft for light reconnaissance, attack, assault and medical evacuation missions. The baseline swept-wing, 13.4m (44ft) diametre rotor concept would be powered by two 3,000shp Improved Turbine Technology Programme (ITEP) engines and is designed to meet a demanding set of core requirements proposed by the US Army in its “Capability Set 1” RFI document. The requirements...

The Mi-28 attack helicopter was developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War as an answer to America's AH-64 Apache. Nicknamed "Havoc" by NATO, it was designed to kill NATO tanks and armored vehicles. As such, the Havoc needed to be able to take hits—even to the cockpit—and keep flying. Despite the similarity between the Havoc and the Apache, we're pretty sure that American helicopter designers didn't test the Apache's armored cockpit by shooting machine guns at it—with people inside. Yes, as the video shows, Soviet designers actually put a person inside a mock Mi-28 Havoc, then fired a...

China and Russia have conducted the seventh round of negotiations on their joint development of heavy-lift helicopters. Both sides have reached a consensus on the core technology, said Yu Feng, President of AVIC Helicopter Co. Ltd. on Monday. The talks, held from Feb. 29 to March 4, are of great significance for further promoting strategic cooperation between China and Russia, Yu Feng, also an NPC deputy, told reporters at the ongoing Two Sessions meetings on March 7. The development of heavy-lift helicopters makes China the third country after Russia and the U.S. to boast the capability. Thus, China has become...